BY KEITH LACEY
A Sudbury-based mining company is hoping to make the giant leap from successful exploration business to full production company within the next year.
At its annual meeting Wednesday, Wallbridge Mining senior management announced the company hopes to start production on an open pit mine near
Hanmer, hopefully within 12 to 15 months.
Wallbridge owns a large piece of land north of Hanmer called the Wisner Property and has discovered an area of mineralization called the Broken Hammer Zone. Company officials believe it can be turned into an open pit operation by the summer of 2006.
The Broken Hammer Zone contains high grades of platinum group metals, palladium, copper and nickel, company president Alar Soever, told a
contingent of 30 shareholders and employees at the Science North Cavern.
?We believe we have between 300,000 and 600,000 tonnes...and the grades are sufficient we believe we will be economic at that tonnage,? said Soever. ?We believe we have the making of a small economic pit operation.?
Wallbridge was formed in Sudbury in 1996 by Risto Laamanen and a small group of partners.
Several other exploration sites around the Sudbury Basin and other parts of northeastern Ontario look encouraging, as does a huge deposit with solid drilling results near Duluth, Minnesota, said Laamanen.
However, for the rest of 2005, Wallbridge plans to continue to spend the majority of exploration dollars on the Broken Hammer Zone project with the goal of providing a resource estimate by the end of the year.
If results remain positive, the company has already developed planning strategies to apply for an environmental assessment and other initiatives that would have to be approved by the government, said Soevers.
?If everything goes smoothly, we could be running an open pit operation at the Wisner property by next summer,? said Soevers, following the meeting.
The high grades discovered near surface would allow for an open pit operation, but the company plans on spending an additional $5 million on
further drilling and exploration of the Wisner property in 2005, said Soevers.
A huge four billion tonne deposit called the ?Minnesota Project? near Duluth also shows great promise.
Guy Mahaffy, the company?s chief financial officer, said Wallbridge plans to invest $7 million on exploration in 2005, with just over $5 million of that on the Wisner property.
However, because of various joint venture partners, Wallbridge will only invest $3.7 million of that total with partners picking up the remaining $3.3 million, he said.
Near the end of the meeting, Laamanen told shareholders the company?s dream to make the leap from successful exploration company to a mining
production company is within site.
?We will make that major discovery and reward you for all your patience,? he said.
No matter how successful Wallbridge becomes, it will always have its head office in Greater Sudbury and will continue to exploration in the Sudbury
region for years to come, said Laamanen.
Wallbridge?s board of directors include former Toronto Maple Leafs captain and NHL Hall of Fame inductee Darryl Sittler, and Warren Holmes, the
former president and CEO of Falconbridge Ltd.
